Another Earth

Released: 2011
Sci-fi, Drama
Director: Mike Cahill
Starring: Brit Marling, William Mapother
Running Time: 92 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A young woman goes back to visit a man after she changes his life from a fatal car accident years earlier.

This was an indie film that I had never heard of.  The plot is that one night a duplicate Earth is found in our own solar system and appears to be moving towards our Earth.  There's a young teen who's been accepted into college early and is out celebrating with alcohol the same night as the announcement is made of Earth 2.  She gets into her car drunk and is listening to the radio as the announcement is made and looks up to the sky to see it, but it's very far away and she has to look for a long while to find it.  While she's looking she doesn't see she's veered into the oncoming lane of traffic and causes a fatal head on collision with a family in their car, waiting at the red light.
After the accident she's arrested and put into jail for 4 years.  After her release, she gets a job, and tries to find the courage to locate the man who survived the accident to apologize for killing his son and wife.
She was a minor at the time of the accident so the man was never told who she was or anything about her.
She feels she must apologize to him, so one day she goes to his house and knocks on his door, but she loses her nerve and makes up a story about how she's from a cleaning agency and offering house keeping services.
The man accepts her offer and through this initial meeting she keeps going to his house, cleaning, but every time with the intention of actually telling him who she is and why she's there.
She also enters the contest that's offering a ride to the other Earth as it gets closer.  Scientists are eager to find out whether it's a mirror image of our planet and if there are duplicates of each person on our own Earth.
 
It's an interesting movie and worth a look if you like science fiction or dramas.  The acting was good, along with the plot (some ideas are silly like another planet comes closer to us and then getting so close without affecting tides and our gravity) has some minor holes, but I ignored them due to the rest of the movie being good.  A few camera shots were overused and awkward, but still forgivable.
I say watch it if you get the chance.  It's a good ending with some thought-provoking moments.
3 and 1/2 out of 5.